AppleInsider this week will be launching a number of stellar deals ahead of the back-to-school buying season, the first of which offer $150 off all of Apple's new 12" MacBooks with AppleCare (most in stock and ready to ship) and between $300-$400 off all new 15" MacBook Pros with AppleCare (also in stock).

Apple may have a bigger business problem than displeasing Taylor Swift with its new Apple Music service; According to Reuters, U.S. regulators are said (by anonymous sources) to be looking into Apple's treatment of music-streaming rivals, now that the company has gone from selling only downloadable music to competing directly with alternatives like Spotify and Pandora. A slice:

While $9.99 has emerged as the going monthly rate for music subscriptions, including Apple's, some streaming companies complain that Apple's cut forces them to either charge more in the App Store than they do on other platforms or erode their profit margins.

The Federal Trade Commission is looking at the issue but has not begun a formal investigation, said the three industry sources, who requested anonymity. The agency has had meetings with multiple concerned parties, one source said. The agency meets with companies routinely, and a formal investigation may not materialize.

Saturday July 11

To prevent an interruption in services, Apple is offering a free 30-day extension to paying iCloud subscribers in Greece currently unable to pay monthly fees due to capital control measures instituted in the region.

It's been reported even before Apple launched its Music streaming service that the company's facing antitrust probes in the US. Now, Reuters says the FTC has begun looking into Cupertino's "treatment of rival streaming music apps" to make sure it's n...

Apple's iPhone 6 and 6 Plus from last fall beat this year's top Android flagship phones in a series of raw performance benchmarks. However, despite often having a pixel resolution advantage, Android phones also typically deliver worse looking graphics on top of being slower, as revealed by GameBench.

The latest update to Google Maps on Android is one of those things that honestly should have happened a long time ago, but surprisingly didn't until recently: Now you can send destination info directly to your mobile device from the desktop. Just lik...

Reuters reported on Friday that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is looking into whether it's legal for Apple to continue taking a 30 percent cut from sales within rival music streaming apps now that the company has its own music streaming service.

No formal investigation has been launched, but one anonymous source speaking to Reuters said that the FTC “has had meetings with multiple concerned parties” to discuss the issue.

Two other anonymous sources said that the FTC is exploring antitrust concerns related to restrictions that Apple places on its rivals, including “a prohibition on advertising in the app that the company is on other platforms, a ban on marketing in the app that consumers can also buy directly from the company’s website, and a ban on linking to a company’s website from within the app.”...

All I had to do to turn my phone into a stealth Google Photos uploader was to turn on the backup sync, then uninstall the app. Whereas one might reasonably believe uninstalling the app from the phone would stop photos from uploading automatically to Google Photos, the device still does it even in the app’s absence. Since making this discovery, I have re-created the issue multiple times in multiple settings on my Galaxy S5.

So, you delete Google Photos and it continues to upload your photos without your consent. Perfect.

Target wants you to have a connected home. It even created a showroom called Open House in the middle of San Francisco to help its shoppers figure out how such a home is supposed to work. But a side effect of this new mini store is that it could show...

YouTube may be one of the big reasons to ditch conventional TV, but that isn't stopping the National Geographic Channel from putting YouTube on TV. The network is airing Generation YouTube, a documentary on the origins and cultural impact of the stre...

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you already know that Apple takes a 30-percent cut of all purchases made through the App Store and in-app purchases. While that setup has worked out reasonably well for both Apple and third-party developers, it’s raising some eyebrows in Washington, DC in the wake of Apple Music’s launch.

Reuters reported Friday that the US Federal Trade Commission may open an investigation into whether that 30-percent cut gives Apple Music an unfair edge over rival streaming music services like Spotify and Rdio. Streaming company executives tell Reuters that it’s difficult enough to make a profit at the customary $9.99 monthly subscription rate, and Apple’s 30-percent policy doesn’t help matters anyway.

We now know that Hacking Team, a company responsible for building some of the more notorious surveillance software in the world, was also doing business with some of the most notorious regimes in the world. How do we know this? Well a treasure trove ...

There are more than 300,000 pieces of debris larger than 1 cm circulating less than 2,000km above Earth, and EPFL is working on a solution to the problem. Its CleanSpace One satellite project has passed a milestone toward its goal of launching a cleanup satellite to capture and destroy its SwissCube, which has been orbiting Earth for more than five years. S3, which focuses on in-orbit delivery of small satellites, will invest about $16 million in the cleanup system, which eSpace likened to a Pac-Man gobbling up space debris.

You're a cat, your human has just finished watching a movie on a MacBook Pro, and it's chilly. So what better spot is there to lay your head than on that warm MBP? This week's Caturday cat is Bubbles, who lives with AWT reader Ryley Johnson. Ryley says:

I’ve been meaning to send you guys a few pictures of my cat with my MacBook Pro. The pictures were taken in the winter when it was cold and I had just got done watching a movie on my MacBook Pro. Bubbles was pretty smart and realized the laptop was warm, so she laid on my MacBook Pro for a while and it made for a few cute pictures.

Bubbles the cat. Photo courtesy of Ryley Johnson

There it is, folks. Further proof that a) cats are smarter than humans, and b) that they somehow made humans design warm electronic thingies to lay on. I'm beginning to think that they control our minds...

That little computer you carry around in your pocket is already your camera, navigation device, instant messaging machine, ride-hailing tool and phone. But it's very possible that, in the not-so-distant future, what we now refer to as "smartphones" w...

As technology became a part of modern life in the 19th century, an increasing amount of scientific study led to breakthroughs in electronic sound engineering -- often as a byproduct of other research. Humans became enamored with the crystalline clari...

Dot is billing itself as the world's smallest Bluetooth headset. That might be mere marketing claptrap, but there's no doubt it's an impressive piece of kit. It runs for six hours of playback and nine hours of call time before it needs to recharge, and it has an 80-hour standby time. When Dot does need more power, you can simply plug it into the protective case, which doubles as a portable charger -- perhaps the smartest idea Dot offers. It also promises crystal clear sound.

In an interesting development, Pitchfork reports that Apple is making music videos for artists in-house. It claims the music videos for Pharrell William’s ‘Freedom’, Drake’s ‘Energy’ and Eminem’s ‘Phenomenal’ were all made by Apple content studios. These artists have certainly helped with the Apple Music launch (with both Pharrell and Drake having their own radio show on Beats 1) so it wouldn’t be out of the question that Apple is ‘compensating’ them with produced music videos. It certainly seems like a good way of brokering a deal for music exclusivity.

Of course, the idea of Apple content creation is weird — especially in such a niche area of...

The US antitrust regulators are reportedly looking into Apple’s subscription service rules for the App Store are anticompetitive and illegal under US law, according to Reuters. The main issue of contention is that the standard streaming music price of $9.99 per month is not attainable for Apple Music competitors as App Store rules enforce a 30% cut of all revenues made from within apps.

This means that streaming companies either have to take on significant profit cuts to stay at the $9.99 mark or charge more in the App Store to account for the 30% margin. The argument is that consumers will not want to pay $12.99 (approximately $9.99...

Friday July 10

Apple's content and media operations are once again under scrutiny by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which is studying claims that iOS App Store policy is illegally stifling competition in the music streaming market, a report said Friday.

A report on Friday claims Apple is producing in-house music videos and other content for chart-topping artists, including Eminem, Pharrell and Drake, the latter of which released such a video on Friday as an Apple Connect exclusive.

Top iPhone and iPad accessory makers Otterbox and Mophie both conducted job cuts this week, according to a pair of tips we received from a source. The source said that Otterbox cut 80 jobs, while Mophie let go of 60 employees. Both Otterbox and Mophie confirmed the job cuts to us today, with Otterbox claiming that its number was less than the 80 our source mentioned.

A small cadre of Retina MacBook Pro owners are calling for Apple to replace or repair their laptops after discovering what appears to be irreparable damage to an antireflective screen coating layer, a problem the group has dubbed "staingate."

Plenty of ink has already been spilled about the Hacking Team's spectacular security meltdown, but why should the press have all the fun? WikiLeaks posted a searchable archive of over a million emails from the Italian IT firm last night, which means ...

This week's roundup includes the new Star Wars app, as well as photo, travel, and game offerings. May the Force be with you!

Halo Channel

The free Halo Channel app for iOS immerses you ever more deeply in the game’s universe — yes, there are gaming strategies and tutorials, but also “compelling additions to the Halo fiction and exclusive behind the scenes documentaries” to that make it possible to do nothing but think about Halo when you’re not actually playing it.

A report on Friday claims Apple recently signed the lease on a nearly 300,000-square-foot office and R&D complex in San Jose, Calif., as part of plans to expand into areas surrounding its home base in Cupertino.

After an onslaught of user criticism this week, Ellen Pao has just stepped down as interim CEO of Reddit, with co-founder Steve Huffman taking over. It all started last weekend, when Reddit abruptly dismissed Victoria Taylor, the company's former dir...

If you've been hoping for an AirPlay or Cast-like tool to beam content to your Amazon streaming gadgets, you'll soon be in luck. The company revealed its Fling feature this week, a tool that will allow developers to include a way to control media fro...

Now that it owns Sunrise, the sleek and social calendar app, it makes sense for Microsoft to integrate it with its other productivity tools. That's why Sunrise now plugs directly into Office 365 on iOS, Android and the desktop, giving you access to a...

It seemed like a good idea at the time. I'd been meaning to lose some weight for a while and all the recent news about how sitting for extended periods of time is terrible for your health convinced me that a drastic change was necessary. So, the best...

For serious iPhone photographers, the line of clip-on accessory lenses from Olloclip is a must. But there’s always been one little problem — to use the lenses, the iPhone had to be carried without a protective case. Sure, one could always just pull the case off just before taking photos, snap on the Olloclip lenses, and then put the case back on afterwards, but that’s counterproductive to taking spur of the moment photos.

Thanks to Hullo for sponsoring The Loop this week. Have you ever slept on a buckwheat pillow? It’s kind of like a beanbag for your head. The hull fill supports your head and neck in a way that can’t be matched by traditional pillows.

Hullo’s features include:

Quality construction & organic materials

Breathable fill that provides cool comfort all night long. No more flipping to the cool side in the middle of the night!

American-made craftsmanship

Free shipping

60-night money-back guarantee

Drop what you’re doing—go and check out Hullo. Try it for 60 nights. If it’s not your favorite pillow, return it for a refund. You can’t lose!

The net neutrality rules passed by the Federal Communications Commission back in February permit it to examine cable and broadband pricing to ensure customers are treated fairly. Four Senators are urging Tom Wheeler and the FCC to do just that. The g...

Recent updates to both iBooks on iOS and iBooks Author let you read Multi-Touch books on an iPhone and produce standard EPUBs with iBooks Author.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

If you're eager to try on HTC's Vive VR headset, which blew us away back at Mobile World Congress, you may soon have your chance. HTC just announced a world tour for the Vive, starting this week at San Diego Comic-Con, stretching all the way into the...

Apple is widely expected to launch two new iPhones this fall, typically referred to as the "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6s Plus" -- but what do we know about them? AppleInsider gives you a rundown of what to anticipate from Apple's next-generation handsets.

Following yesterday’s release of the OS X El Capitan public beta, Apple has pushed out a small update to the operating system to address issues that could cause 32-bit apps to crash. The update is available to users on the public beta and those on the separate developer preview.

There’s also an update to the Samantha voice that improves pronunciation. You can download both updates through the Updates tab of the Mac App Store. OS X El Capitan was announced during WWDC...

Apple on Thursday released to consumers a preview of the latest versions of its mobile and desktop operating systems -- iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan -- which contain a number of new features, including a revamped two-factor authentication scheme. The latest release of iOS also contains two new smart folders. One automatically collects any photos captured with the front-facing camera in an iOS device -- which typically is used for selfies -- and the other aggregates any images used for screen shots.

Facebook has big plans for music, but a streaming service isn’t on the agenda.

Instead, the social network is talking to the major record labels about licensing music videos to put in your News Feed. According to the New York Times, Facebook has no interest in taking on Apple Music or Spotify—its sights are set on YouTube, which has more than a billion users who rack up billions of video views per day.

Videos on Facebook garner more than a billion views per day, though the network uses autoplay, which likely sends that number higher than it would be otherwise. But Facebook has 1.4 billion monthly active users who might watch just as many videos as YouTubers do, if the content is there.

If you’re both brave of heart and hankering to play with the first public betas of Apple’s upcoming operating systems, your dreams have come true.

Apple has just released the first public betas of OS X El Capitan and iOS 9.

The iOS 9 beta build will allow early adopters to try out upcoming features, including new apps like News and a refreshed Notes, transit directions in Apple Maps, an improved Siri, a smarter search which lets you surface results from inside apps, and much more.

The new version of Microsoft Office has arrived with Microsoft citing support for Mac capabilities like Full Screen view, Multi-Touch gestures, full Retina display support as well as cloud support to allow Macs and assorted devices to work on documents.

New features include improved document commenting in Word, an improved formula builder for Excel, a new animation pane in PowerPoint, a reworked version of Outlook for email and OneNote, which allows quick, shared note creation between computers and devices as...

People attending Major League Baseball's All-Star Game in Cincinnati will be able to use Apple Pay to buy food and other goods, both during the game and at facilities set up for All-Star Week and the All-Star FanFest, which begins on Friday, according to an official announcement.

Liner has released the Liner app for iOS. The application allows users to highlight & annotate text, share complete pages or phrases, function as a Safari extension, share to other apps with the share extension and save pages to to Liner app for later highlighting.

Liner also allows you to save and export to Evernote and support three highlight colors.

The app requires iOS 8.0 or later to install and run and is available for free.

And, in the words of the mighty Erikka Innes, “why highlight the interesting stuff when you can just black out the boring stuff?”, which may be the best and worst...

Apple is expected to launch an updated iPod touch next week, a refresh that is likely to bring new colors and updated internals that reportedly include a move to a more recent 64-bit A-series application processor.

MasterCard announced today that it’s turning on Apple Pay at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio just in time for the 2015 MLB All-Star game taking place July 14.

Those attending the game, or the pre-game events kicking off this weekend, will be able to use Apple Pay to pay for food, merchandise, and more.

“We’re thrilled to partner with MLBAM to bring contactless acceptance to the 2015 MLB All-Star Week festivities. Through our longstanding relationship with MLB and MLBAM, we are constantly looking for opportunities to create enhanced fan experiences both in-stadium and online, whether that’s through advanced payment capabilities or delivering surprises to fans.”

A possible class action suit is in preparation over multiple reports of what appears to be anti-reflective coatings flaking off the screens of Retina MacBook Pros, resulting in a stained appearance. Most of the machines affected seem to be 2013 models.

A group calling itself Staingate says that it has a database of more than 2500 people affected by the issue. More than 1800 of them have joined a Facebook group, a petition has been created, and lawyers Whitfield Bryson & Mason are ...

Apple's latest ad campaign for the iPhone has a new sassy tagline and highlights two points that longtime Apple fans will appreciate: first, we all love our iPhones very much and second, Apple's control of both the hardware and operating system on its devices makes them capable of doing many things very efficiently.

Using the new tagline "If it's not an iPhone, it's not an iPhone," the two new ads "Loved" and "Hardware and Software" are short, sweet and to the point:

Our take on the news

In just thirty seconds each, the two ads succinctly point out what it is that makes an iPhone work so much better than competing platforms and as a result, that the vast majority of iPhone owners love their phones. It doesn't call out Android or Samsung by name, instead providing positive messages. Well...

Samsung is planning to move up the announcement of its next-generation Galaxy Note phone to mid-August in an attempt to preempt the publicity of Apple's usual September iPhone refresh, a report said on Friday.

I spent the day yesterday running the latest betas of El Capitan, iOS 9, and watchOS 2.0. One of the comments I’ve heard from previous betas is a complaint about poor battery life on both iOS 9 and Apple Watch. I thought I’d track my battery life, share those numbers here.

Just yesterday I was speculating about the future of the iPod, and it appears we may not have long to wait until we learn a little more about it. French site iGen, which has a good track-record, says that the iPod line-up will see a refresh on or around 14th July.

It appears to have little hard information beyond internal model numbers, but based on those speculates that the Shuffle and Nano will see only the color changes spotted in iTunes 12.2, while the Touch may receive a more substantive update … ...

Apple's latest retail outpost in Hong Kong --?thought to be the company's largest in Asia -- went public this week with the unveiling of a huge, three-dimensional Apple logo in a somewhat unexpected place.

Thanks to the introduction of ad-blocking technology in iOS 9, some people think Apple wants to help users get rid of ads. But that’s not Apple’s goal. Yesterday’s debut of Apple News shows that it’s actually angling to replace the ads you know, build upon them, and take a cut of their revenue…

I have a Gorillapod which comes in handy for my compact camera, but it’s a little chunky to carry around for use with an iPhone. The Gekkopod is a similar idea, but in a much smaller format, making it a lot easier to tuck away into a bag for those times when you find you need a stable platform for a photo – whether for a selfie or a low-light shot where you want to avoid camera shake.

I’ve been trying out a prototype for a couple of weeks, and the grippy plastic legs wrap around most things very securely. With the sun going down, the Gekkopod held the camera steady for a low-ish light shot while using my Apple Watch as a remote shutter release. I didn’t even need to fully wrap the legs around the railing to hold it securely in place. The legs can...

These days, keeping up with games can be a full-time job. So how do you separate the signal from the noise, the wheat from the chaff, the Temple Runs from the Temple Jumps? Allow us to help by regularly selecting a game You Should Play.

I adore word games, but I could never really get into the Words With Friends craze. The turn-based Scrabble-inspired game moves too slowly for me, and there’s no real hook (aside from it being Scrabble, that is). But NimbleBit’s new word game Capitals is different: It’s the perfect mash-up of Scrabble, Boggle, and Risk.

Samsung is planning to bring forward the launch of the Galaxy Note 5 from September to August, according to the WSJ. It’s believed the change in schedule is designed to get the device on sale ahead of Apple’s anticipated September launch of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, which is likely to dominate tech media coverage that month.

Samsung has always previously launched its Note models on the eve of the IFA conference, which takes place in Berlin in September. The WSJ cites only a single source for the claim, but it’s not the first time we’ve heard suggestions that the company may bring forward the launch this year.

If you’re a regular user of iCloud Drive, Apple’s Dropbox-like storage solution for managing file syncing between your Mac and iOS devices, then your life is about to get a teensy bit easier. Apple built a standalone iCloud Drive app and bundled it within iOS 9, placing all of your iCloud Drive files in one easy to access spot.

But, surprisingly, the iCloud Drive app doesn’t automatically appear—it’s instead tucked away within Settings, and you have to tell your iOS device that you want to see it. Besides that, it’s a pretty straightforward app. I spent some time with it while checking out the iOS 9 public beta, and here are some quick tips on getting started.

It will, I’m certain, shock and surprise you to know that I’m the person anyone in my family comes to when they’re thinking about buying a new piece of technology. But earlier this week, when my cousin came to me looking for advice about buying a new laptop, I realized something: The specs race is over.

I don’t mean to suggest that computer specs aren’t important—believe me, were I in the market for a new Mac, I’d be poring over Apple’s product pages to figure out what I need. But where I used to be able to rattle off all the specs of my Mac like a car enthusiast discussing what’s under their hood, these days, I honestly couldn’t tell you what processor is in the MacBook Air I’m typing on at this very moment. (A 1.7GHz Intel Core i7, as it turns out, thanks to About This Mac.)

itwbennett writes: The hacker group, which security researchers from Kaspersky Lab and Symantec call Wild Neutron or Morpho, has broken into the networks of over 45 large companies since 2012. After the 2013 attacks against Twitter, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft were highly publicized, the group went underground and temporarily halted its activity. However, its attacks resumed in 2014 and have since intensified, according to separate reports released Wednesday by Kaspersky Lab and Symantec.

Thursday July 9

A change in the way OS X 10.10.4 and iOS 8.4 handles security keys has caused a number of users -- specifically those using Gmail -- to see SMTP send failures and even app crashes. Luckily, there's an easy fix for both users and system admins looking for a permanent server-side solution.

Apple today uploaded a pair of new ads to YouTube. The first ad, entitled “Hardware & Software,” showcases the fact that Apple is responsible for both major aspects of the iPhone, making for a more seamless and stable experience. The obvious goal here is to advertise the fact that with an Android device, you get hardware made by a manufacturer and software made by Google.

The second ad is entitled “Loved” and seemingly showcases how happy iPhone users are. Apple touts in the video that 99 percent of people who own an iPhone love it.

Both of today’s new advertisements end with the slogan, “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.” The videos can be seen below. Apple’s other recent major iPhone ad campaign, Shot on iPhone 6, heavily showcased...

Have you heard about HTC lately? 2015 is shaping up to be an awful year for the company. In March the company had a market cap of $4.06 billion, and today—only a few months later—it’s worth less than half of that. The stock price, at about two bucks a share, is at a 10-year low. HTC just wrapped up the second quarter of 2015, where it posted a net loss of $258 million. And the trend is downwards—year over year, HTC’s monthly revenue was down 38% in April, 48% in May, and 60% in June.

I feel bad for HTC. They have tried to make some good products, but Samsung’s tactics have pushed them down.

Apple CEO Tim Cook returned for his fourth Sun Valley conference in Idaho this week where he, along SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, met with high-power executives from media, tech, politics and beyond.

Due as a part of El Capitan this fall, and available right now as a public beta is the first major update to Photos for Mac, the replacement for iPhoto and Aperture that Apple launched earlier this year.

Here are the major additions you can expect to see in Photos when 1.1 arrives this fall (or when you install the public beta, depending on your enthusiasm):

Two pharmaceutical titans, GlaxoSmithKline and Purdue Pharma, are looking for ways to implement Apple's open-source ResearchKit framework into clinical testing and research and development operations, a report said Thursday.

IBM Research on Thursday announced that an alliance it leads has produced the first 7nm node test chips with functioning transistors. Big Blue's partners are GlobalFoundries, Samsung and the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute's Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, or SUNY Poly CNSE. The alliance sought to develop industry-first innovations, such as Silicon Germanium channel transistors, and Extreme Ultraviolet lithography integration at multiple levels.

Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 team on Tuesday published a report on Gunpoder, a family of Android malware that can evade detection scans by pretending to be adware. Cong Zheng and Zhi Xu authored the report. The team discovered the new Android malware last November. Its new report aims to spur cooperation within the security community to mount defenses against the threat. The name "Gunpoder" comes from the main malicious component the researchers identified in the malware code.

In an update to its promotional "Shot on iPhone 6" webpage on Thursday, Apple added five new snippets captured by iPhone 6 users from around the world, including the campaign's first underwater footage.

The first major update of Microsoft Office for Mac since the 2011 edition was released today and is available as a download for consumer and business customers of Office 365 with the proper subscription level. Home users of Office 365 can get the software from office.com/myaccount, while business users should navigate to the Web interface, click the...

Apple has been highlighting beautiful photos and videos in an ad campaign called "Shot on iPhone 6" that shows off the capabilities of the camera built into the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. This week, Apple has added five new videos that are stunning.

From a time-lapse of a sunrise to watery locations or trains and automobile, these short videos show just how professional the camera in the iPhone 6 really is. Enjoy the embedded videos below:

iMore mentioned that some people that signed up for the iOS 9 beta have been notified that it’s available to download. Mac Rumors says that OS X El Capitan will also be available to day. You can sign-up on Apple’s site to test both versions.

Continuing to buck trends, Mac sales rose 16.1 percent year-over-year in the June quarter even as the PC industry as a whole shrank 11.8 percent, according to new estimates published on Thursday by research firm IDC.

Apple’s ResearchKit platform has received a significant amount of praise since its launch earlier this year alongside iOS 8.2, and now researchers are looking into new ways to take advantage of the platform. BuzzFeed News today published an interesting report detailing how Purdue Pharma is investigating using ResearchKit to aid in its drug R&D efforts, in the first for-profit use of the platform.

“We know that all these changes in tech are going to impact health care, but we don’t know exactly how,” Larry Pickett Jr., Purdue’s vice president and chief...

Apple has published five new “Shot on iPhone 6” videos to its website and YouTube channel. The videos were filmed by iPhone owners in four different cities across the world: Anchorage, AK; Haleiwa, HI; Salar de Uyuni, Boliva; and two from Hewiia, Papua New Guinea.

Apple debuted the award-winning campaign earlier this year with a handful of photos and videos taken on the latest iPhone model and has continued to update it with new entries over the past four months.

T-Mobile U.S. on Thursday announced that, thanks to new deals with regional carriers, Simple Choice plan subscribers will soon have access to free voice, text, and LTE data roaming while visiting Canada or Mexico.

Every year, a handful of clued-in pundits start floating “wouldn’t it be nice” Apple OS ideas just before the features actually show up in Apple’s products. Right before iOS 7 debuted a flattened design, at a point when few people even knew what skeuomorphism was, pundits began to ask, “boy, doesn’t skeuomorphism stink?” Then ahead of iOS 9, when people might have wondered what new marquee features were coming to Apple’s operating systems, pundits said, “hey, wouldn’t it be nice if Apple focused on iOS and OS X stability this year?” Recently, a new topic came up just before Apple debuted the beta version of News for iOS 9: “Web advertising really sucks — wouldn’t it be great if that all went away?”

Advertising is an easy target: it’s an eyesore, slows down web pages, and — in the wrong hands — compromises your privacy. But whether you accept...

Local Motors this week unveiled designs for what it hopes will be the first consumer-ready 3D-printed electric cars. The company plans to build two versions of the Reload Redacted vehicle, based on a design by engineer Kevin Lo, who took first place in the Project [REDACTED] competition. Local Motors earlier this year demonstrated a concept vehicle at the Detroit Auto Show, where it printed out the entire body during the event. The resulting prototype, dubbed the "Strati," was made up of fewer than 50 individual parts.

Recently, we discovered that Apple was in the process of revamping its third-party accessory packaging within retail stores. As reported by our own Mark Gurman, Apple has been working on this co-designed packaging with accessory makers for the past six months and now it’s finally hitting store shelves…

The idea here is to have a uniform look across all products sold within Apple retail stores. As expected, the packaging is all white, with a product shot, and simple fonts to identify the accessory inside. This doesn’t apply to all accessories available in Apple...

The few, the proud, the beta testers. If you're one of those folks who either has a wish to possibly break your production Mac, iPhone or iPad or is just incredibly impatient, you can now get the OS X 10.11 El Capitan and iOS 9 public betas. All you need is an Apple ID.

The public betas are available on Apple's Beta Software Program website, following the launch of the third developer betas that were seeded to registered iOS and OS X developers. Apple does public betas in order to increase the size of the pool of testers. Apple recommends keeping a backup of your stable OS X and iOS installations before installing the beta.

Right now, the benefits of installing the public betas are rather slim as most developers have not rewritten their apps to take advantage of the new features in both iOS 9 and OS X 10.11. But if you really want to try some of the multitasking features in iOS 9 on your iPad Air 2...

Office 2016 for Mac has been finished and is available today to Office 365 subscribers and students. As long as your Office 365 subscription includes the desktop Office suite (Home, Personal, Business, Business Premium, E3, and ProPlus) you can install it from your account page. Not a subscriber? You'll have to wait until some time in September, though we're not exactly sure when. Microsoft hasn't announced the precise release date or how much it'll cost.

Software Updates via MacUpdate

Kodi 15.1.rc1 - Powerful media center to...

Kodi (was XBMC) is an award-winning free and open-source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub that can be installed on Linux, OS X, Windows, iOS, and Android, featuring a 10-foot user... Read more

Bookends 12.5.8 - Reference management a...

Bookends is a full-featured bibliography/reference and information-management system for students and professionals.
Access the power of Bookends directly from Mellel, Nisus Writer Pro, or MS Word (... Read more

Chromium 44.0.2403.125 - Fast and stable...

Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web.
Version 44.0.2403.125:
This release contains a number... Read more

iMazing 1.2.2 - Complete iOS device mana...

iMazing (was DiskAid) is the ultimate iOS device manager with capabilities far beyond what iTunes offers. With iMazing and your iOS device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod), you can:
Copy music to and from... Read more

Audio Hijack 3.2.0 - Record and enhance...

Audio Hijack (was Audio Hijack Pro) drastically changes the way you use audio on your computer, giving you the freedom to listen to audio when you want and how you want. Record and enhance any audio... Read more

FontExplorer X Pro 5.0.1 - Font manageme...

FontExplorer X Pro is optimized for professional use; it's the solution that gives you the power you need to manage all your fonts.
Now you can more easily manage, activate and organize your... Read more

Calcbot 1.0.2 - Intelligent calculator a...

Calcbot is an intelligent calculator and unit converter for the rest of us. Featuring an easy-to-read history tape, expression view, intuitive conversion, and much more!
Features
History Tape -... Read more

MTR 5.0.0.1 - The Mac's oldest and...

MTR (was MacTheRipper)--the Mac's oldest and smartest DVD-backup app--is now updated to version 5.001
MTR -- the complete toolbox, not a one-trick, point-and-click extractor. MTR is intended for... Read more

LibreOffice 4.4.5.2 - Free, open-source...

LibreOffice is an office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, drawing tool) compatible with other major office suites. The Document Foundation is coordinating development and... Read more

Adobe Lightroom 6.1.1 - Import, develop,...

Adobe Lightroom is available as part of Adobe Creative Cloud for as little as $9.99/month bundled with Photoshop CC as part of the photography package. Lightroom 6 is also available for purchase as a... Read more

Bandai Namco has released Pac-Man Championship Edition DX on iOS and Android, which features the classic arcade gameplay that we've all grown to love.
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX can be enjoyed in much shorter bursts than the arcade versions... | Read more »

Angel Stone is Fincon's follow up to the massively successful Hello Hero and is out now on iOS and Android.
You play as a member of The Resistance, a group of mighty human warriors who have risen up in defiance of the Demon horde threatening to... | Read more »

The not exactly rumors were true and the birds are back. Angry Birds 2 has come to the App Store and the world will... well I suppose it'll still be the same, but now we have more bird-flinging options!
[Read more]
| Read more »

You Could Design Your Own Card for Chain...

If you've ever wanted to create your own item, weapon, trap, or even monster for Chainsaw Warrior: Lords of the Night, this is your chance. Auroch Digital is currently holding a contest so that fans can fight to the death (not really) to see which... | Read more »

Bitcoin Billionaire is Going Back in Tim...

If you thought you managed to buy everything there is to buy in Bitcoin Billionaire and make all the money, well you though wrong. Those of you who made it far enough might remember investing in time travel - and it looks like that investment is... | Read more »

Domino Drop (Games)

Domino Drop 1.0
Device: iOS Universal
Category: Games
Price: $1.99, Version: 1.0 (iTunes)
Description:
Domino Drop is a delightful new puzzle game with dominos and gravity!Learn how to play it in a minute, master it day by day.Your... | Read more »

Best Buy has iPad Air 2s on sale for up to $100 off MSRP on their online store for a limited time. Choose free shipping or free local store pickup (if available). Sale prices available for online... Read more

B&H Photo has the 13″ 1.6GHz/128GB MacBook Air on sale for $899.99 including free shipping plus NY tax only. Their price is $100 off MSRP, and it’s the lowest price available for this model.... Read more

Worldwide Tablet Market Decline Continues, Ap...

The worldwide tablet market declined -7.0% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2015 (2Q15) with shipments totaling 44.7 million units according to preliminary data from the International Data... Read more

The Apple Store has Apple Certified Refurbished iPad Air 2s available for up to $140 off the price of new models. Apple’s one-year warranty is included with each model, and shipping is free:
- 128GB... Read more

Updated Apple iPad Price Trackers

We’ve updated our iPad Air Price Tracker and our iPad mini Price Tracker with the latest information on prices and availability from Apple and other resellers.
Read more

Apple refurbished 2014 13-inch 128GB MacBook...

The Apple Store has Apple Certified Refurbished 2014 13″ MacBook Airs available starting at $759. An Apple one-year warranty is included with each MacBook, and shipping is free:
- 13″ 1.4GHz/128GB... Read more

Apple’s Education discount saves up to $300 o...

Purchase a new Mac or iPad at The Apple Store for Education and take up to $300 off MSRP. All teachers, students, and staff of any educational institution qualify for the discount. Shipping is free,... Read more

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